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Topic: Help put spare laptop to use (Read 3987 times)

I have a spare laptop that I want to find a use for. It is about 5 years old, has an 80GB hd and the battery is dead. It still works on AC and I don't want to invest in a new battery as I already have a better laptop and 2 desktops. So, what is a good use for this thing? I don't need more central storage as I already have a 1TB NAS with a media server running on it. Is there a way to run antivirus/anti-spyware apps on a central machine and have the others route through that? If so, would that mean I wouldn't need these running on each individual machine? Any other ideas for putting this thing to use?

I kinda like the test bed idea. I might give Linux a whirl just to say I did. I also might try Windows Home Server and see what that can do for me. Fortunately, I have a MS Technet subscription so I can try it for free. I'll let you know how it goes. Now, if I could only find some free time to do it in.

edbro: Make a digital frame out of it, possibly for your parents, grandparents, etc. My cousin does this for his family - he's made about a dozen so far. Surprisingly they look much better than purchased digital frames.

Is there a way to run antivirus/anti-spyware apps on a central machine and have the others route through that? If so, would that mean I wouldn't need these running on each individual machine? Any other ideas for putting this thing to use?

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